It could be worse: Penalties edition

As usual after a loss, we're going to look at one aspect of the team which has come under fire by comparing it to some others around the league (or perhaps from Jets history) to illustrate how other teams have to deal with the same issues.

Today, we're going to look at the issue of penalties. The Jets were the third best team in the league in terms of not being penalized in each of the first two seasons of the Todd Bowles regime. However, in 2017, the Jets are currently seventh worst in penalties against and fifth worst in penalty yardage.

Interestingly, the worst offenders (Morris Claiborne, Buster Skrine, Brian Winters, Darron Lee and Austin Seferian-Jenkins) have all been committing fewer penalties over the last month or two.

In all, the Jets have committed 105 penalties for 917 yards (having averaged 812 yards for the entire season over the previous two years).

It could be worse, though. Let's pick out some teams who have fared worse than the Jets:

Dolphins. Miami is second in the NFL in team penalties and also have the player with the second highest accepted penalty count in Laremy Tunsil.

They also have several other players among the league leaders at their respective positions. Kenny Stills is tied for the lead in terms of penalties by wide receivers, Xavien Howard is tied for second place for cornerback penalties and Ndamukong Suh leads all defensive interior linemen with 11 penalties.

Suh also seems to be mentoring an heir apparent in terms of penalties, because rookie Davon Godchaux has 10 penalties of his own, despite only starting five games and playing just 435 snaps.

Seahawks. The league leader in penalties, however, is Seattle. They're way out in front with 129 and 1,100 yards. This includes a league-leading 54 on defense - with the Jets second on 51.

This effort has been led by Germain Ifedi, who has been flagged an impressive 19 times. He's the only non-defensive back with over 100 penalty yards. Former Jet Oday Aboushi has also been racking up the flags, as he has eight in just seven games.

However, on defense, Michael Bennett has been the chief offender. 10 of his 12 penalties are of the pre-snap variety.

49ers. The 49ers actually have fewer penalty yards than the Jets, but have been penalized six more times. In addition, the discrepancy between the penalties they've committed (111) and the flags on their opponents (79) is second only to that of the Seahawks.

The 49ers also lead the league with 26 pre-snap penalties on offense, five more than the Jets.

Interestingly, the 49ers don't have many individuals in amongst the positional leaders, but their most penalized player this season has been Rashard Robinson. Of course, Robinson has since been traded to the Jets, although penalties haven't been an issue since his arrival - mainly because he hasn't played much.

Houston. The Texans have the fourth most penalties in the league but the second-highest yardage count. However, one thing working in their favor is that their opponents have been penalized more than every other team's opponents.

One key factor here is their offensive line which has three different starters with at least nine penalties, including former Jet Breno Giacomini. For the Jets, Brian Winters is the only offensive lineman with more than six penalties.

Cincinnati. Finally, Cincinnati's overall numbers aren't too bad, falling pretty much in the middle of the pack.

However, they have the league leader in penalty yardage in cornerback Dre Kirkpatrick. His 120 yards on just six accepted penalties already exceeds his 118 yards that placed eighth in the league two seasons ago. His penalty yardage dropped to 82 last year.

114 of these yards have come over the last eight games, including three pass interference penalties 30 yards or more down the field.